A person who, after having given up his old job, is reluctantly forced back into work because he's just so damn good at it. Usually because his former colleagues have run into some desperate situation, and/or his replacements have failed. The opposite of Reluctant Retiree.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

Full Metal Panic!: In the side story "Golden Days with Captain Amigo," Sousuke and Kurz both find million dollar treasure. And both are shown to be in agreement that, once they get rich from this, they would both hightail it out of Mithril and retire, doing what they want. However, after they accidentally destroy an M6 AS, the higher-ups from Mithril take all the treasure from them as payment. Incidentally, it's revealed that the executives estimated the cost of damages to be higher, thereby taking all the treasure and destroying both of their plans for retirement. Even more suspiciously, it's revealed that Kalinin had a hand in the expenses... and of course, Kalinin had showed numerous times his desire to keep Sousuke with him.

A recurring theme in Getter Robo is that if you piloted Getter at some point, no matter how far you run from it, destiny keeps throwing you in the cockpit.

At the end of the first season of Sailor Moon, Usagi wipes her and her friends' memories to give them yet another chance at a normal life without fighting. Come the second season, a new threat shows up and Luna is forced to restore her memories and reinstate her as Sailor Moon. Needless to say, Usagi is not pleased.

In Naruto, the Third Hokage is forced back into active duty after the incident that sealed the Kyuubi inside the main character- and the death of the Fourth Hokage, obviously. He wasn't the only person who was seen as a viable candidate, but the village went with him because they knew where to find him; the future Fifth Hokage had no interest in the job, and had left the village entirely after retiring from its ninja forces.

Kunieda Aoi of Beelzebub was the 3rd leader of the Red Tails, a gang of the strongest ladies of Kanto who do not like men, and as such getting a boyfriend means that you quit. Kunieda sports an incredibly obvious crush on Oga since their first meeting and quits accordingly; however, the gang (and the Number Two especially) do not accept it and still treat Kunieda as their boss. Then the Red Tails' founder, through a special request, changes the rule about men, and afterward Kunieda reclaims her title after a showdown with the 2nd Red Tails leader who'd gone rogue along with the majority of the Red Tails.

In the Strider manga, Hiryu is forced out of his self-imposed retirement to murder his friend Cain, who was captured while on duty and became a liability to the group. He reluctantly accepts the job after his superior Matic threatens an entire village of innocents.

Hudson Hawk. After getting out of jail, Eddie wants to go straight but various villains coerce him into becoming a cat burglar again because they need his expertise.

Hot Shots! and Hot Shots! Part Deux. In both movies, Topper Harley quit the military, but the U.S. government sought him out and recruited him for a secret mission.

Our Man Flint and In Like Flint. In both movies, Z.O.W.I.E. chief Cramden must convince his reluctant old military subordinate Derek Flint to join up and save the day.

Blazing Saddles. The Waco Kid is a Retired Gunfighter who gives up his drunken ways and becomes a hero again to help his friend Sheriff Bart save the town of Rock Ridge.

Big Game has a retired CIA operative brought back when the president goes missing because he's just that good.

Dreamscape. Alex Gardner gave up psychic research to use his incredible abilities to make money by betting on horse races. After being threatened by a bookie he rejoins his old mentor, who needs him for a project that has him entering the minds of sleeping people and sharing their dreams.

Flatliners. Brilliant student David Labraccio quits medical school after being forced to break the rules to save a patient's life. Although he's reluctant to do so, fellow student Nelson recruits him for a bizarre experiment to explore beyond the boundaries of life and death.

Swordfish, Stanley Jobson. although he was forced into "retirement" (convicted criminal) he is forced back into his criminal ways.

The Fifth Element: Korbin Dallas is a special forces soldier who gets called back into service for a mission after retiring and working as a cab driver. As per the trope he has no interest in the mission and only ends up agreeing to it because of a case of Always Save the Girl.

Mandatory Star Trek example: In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Kirk pulls a few strings and yanks McCoy out of retirement and back into his position as CMO, overruling and ending his objections with one memorable (and slashy) line: "I need you, Bones. I need you."

K in Men in Black II is yanked from his peaceful life as a mailman to join the MIB again due to knowledge even he doesn't know he possesses.

This is how Col. Jack O'Neil ends up involved in the events of Stargate, and becomes a recurring theme for him (see under Live Action TV below).

In Commando, the bad guys kidnap John Matrix's daughter in order to force him to do one last job for them. Big mistake.

Nick Charles in The Thin Man series of films gets pulled back into detective work after his retirement.

In The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Scully works at a hospital and Mulder is still technically a wanted fugitive. The FBI recruits Scully to recruit Mulder (since she's the only one who knows where he is) to assist in investigating the X-Filean disappearence of another FBI agent. In exchange, all charges against Mulder are dropped and he's no longer a fugitive.

Mission: Impossible III begins with Ethan Hunt retired from field duty and working only as an instructor, all ready to settle down and start a family.

Vietnam veteran Mitchell Gant is brought out of retirement to steal the Firefox.

In Aliens, Ripley is called back to join the mission for her expertise after being suspended from work.

World War Z: Gerret, who was apparently one of his country's best investigators is pulled back into action because authorities want his help in stopping the Zombie Apocalypse.

In Welcome to the Punch, Jacob Sternwood, an English biker robber, is forced to come out of his Icelandic retirement to save his arrested son in London.

Game of Death: In the original version, Hai Tien (Bruce Lee) is a retired full contact world champion and initially refuses to take part in the "game of death" and only does so after his family is kidnapped by the Korean mafia.

Literature

In the Night Angel books, Kylar tries to retire to a new city with his love interest, but since this happens in book two of a three part series, it obviously doesn't work. Both his friends and his enemies go to some considerable effort to pull him back in.

That's how Mackenzie Calhoun is pulled back into Starfleet (at least, the official Starfleet) in Star Trek: New Frontier. That, plus that fourth pip, plus Jean-Luc Picard saying "Get the groz in that Captain's chair, you idiot!" gets him fully back.

George Smiley has retired at least three times and been brought back, albeit in an informal or advisory capacity, to clean up various messses made by his former colleagues in the security services. He does it enough that one character at the begining of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy insists, much to Smiley's chagrin, that his retirement (Smiley's second at that point) is merely cover.

In In Fury Born, retired members of the Imperial Cadre are technically only put on Inactive Reserve, meaning that the government can reactivate them if they want to.

A variation of this is used in Mission of Honor, where following Oyster Bay both Admiral Givens and Admiral Caparelli offer their resignations and are told by royal edict that they will not be scapegoated and their badly needed arses are going nowhere.

Crosses over with Emergency Impersonation in the Relativity story "Caffeine Headache": Most of the people in the city begin acting weird due to something in the coffee. The superheroes struggle to maintain order, but the Black Torrent is in South America investigating the farms where the coffee originated. His father — the original Black Torrent — dons the superhero costume and goes out in his place.

Live Action TV

The Outer Limits (1963) episode "The Chameleon''. When aliens land on Earth, government agents hunt down former secret agent Louis Mace because he's the best man for the job of infiltrating them.

24: Jack Bauer in spades. Went on indefinite leave after Season One due to the death of his wife Teri, brought back in Season Two after President David Palmer personally asked for his involvement in a nuclear threat. Left (or, more accurately, was fired from) CTU after Season Three, forced himself back into CTU from a Department of Defense desk job after CTU kept screwing up under new leadership in Season Four. Faked his death at the end of Season Four, comes back in Season Five after David Palmer is assassinated. Gets captured and tortured by the Chinese for eighteen months after Season Five, is returned in Season Six to be sacrificed to the mastermind of a terrorist plot who has a personal axe to grind with Jack Bauer. Retired and under investigation by the Senate just before Season Seven, whisked off by the FBI to help find Tony Almeida. Judging by the trailers of Season Eight, this is definitely happening again.

A common occurance in JAG with Harmon Rabb, resigning his commission once and he also transfered back to the fleet once. Mac also resigned for the duration of one episode in the third season.

Gibbs "retires" at the end of Season 3 of NCIS. He's temporarily reinstated at the beginning of Season 4, and permanently reinstated by the end of the second episode.

Bizarrely, this is how Stargate SG-1started: Col. Jack O'Neill had retired after the events of the movie, and they had to get him to un-retire for the series. Presumably an intentional parallel to how he was recruited in the movie.

Happens several times to Thomas Magnum in Magnum, P.I. with the US Navy.

In "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", MI6 calls Higgins back up for a Fake Defector job.

Tommy Oliver in Power Rangers Dino Thunder, back in the spandex after seven years off-duty, when all he wants to do now is be a science teacher. Notably, the only reason he has to unretire is because "science teacher" was his second idea of how to have a peaceful post-Ranger career; his first was "mad scientist", and was such a disaster he had to become a Ranger again just to clean up after himself. He re-retires after that.

Hannibal: Will Graham has retired from criminal profiling in the three year Time Skip, but Jack brings him back into it to catch the Tooth Fairy.

Professional Wrestling

Just about every 'retirement' ends up rescinded via this, usually with the retired guy having no other way to try and shut a young upstart up than to prove he's (still) as good as his reputation indicates.

Vince McMahon was pretty much retired from onscreen performing when he was kayfabe-removed from the position of COO back in the summer of 2011, during the Summer of Punk II. However, John Laurinaitis proved to be an insufficient and rather incompetent replacement, with his feud with Punk being critically panned (especially in comparison to the Summer of Punk II, which is regarded as the best feud in years). Meanwhile, Triple H, the only guy that could possibly fit into Vince's massiveBad Boss shoes, was in a feud with Brock Lesnar as a Face, and was for the most part a wrestler despite being the COO. So Vince for all intents and purposes came out of retirement to fulfill the role of the onscreen authority figure who has more power than the general manager.

Video Games

In Metal Gear Solid, Solid Snake is essentially kidnapped and blackmailed into starting the events of the game.

Then another gaiden game: Metal Gear Ac!d came along where Snake was approached and asked politely by Rogers to participate in the plot, with Snake being a little more humble about it.

Then it happens again in the fourth game. Kojima seems to really love this trope...

It's apparently genetic, as something similar to MGS1 happened to Big Boss to set off Portable Ops.

Descent II opens with Dravis informing the player character, Material Defender, that the contract he signed with PTMC allows them to retain his services for more missions; if he declines, he won't get paid for the work he's already done.

And as anyone who has seen the intro for Descent III knows, he can't get a break even after Dravis tries to kill him, as his rescuers (who are the good guys) use his desire for revenge to override his desire to just settle down somewhere nice and quiet.

Garcia the warrior in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. Garcia gave up being a warrior to raise his son after his wife died, but Ross makes him realize that the battlefield is where he belongs after the two help Eirika and her crew drive off some bandits.

Happens to both Maverick and Vagabond in Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom.

Retired Scout Edin Dan from Tower of God had enough of this tower-climbing nonsense… until Koon baited him into a bet, trying to win him for his ascension team. Edin tried to trick Koon, but got quickly Out-Gambitted.

Western Animation

In the four part culmination of the Cadmus Arc in Justice League Unlimited, Cadmus uses this to get Captain Atom on their side by reactivating his commission to the U.S Army, under General Eiling.

Played for Laughs in a flashback in the first Season Finale of Yin Yang Yo!, where Master Yo is about to enjoy his retirement, only to be visited by spirits of past Woo Foo warriors who refuse to leave him alone unless he agrees to train Yin and Yang.

Real Life

Many US military members were mandatorily called back into active duty on the start of the second Gulf War, in some cases because there was equipment being used that nobody knew how to maintain anymore.

In fact, this is a case of All There in the Manual. The enlistment papers that you sign to join indicate that there is a period of time where you agree to be called back into duty according to the needs of the service. Usually your total commitment comes out to something like eight years total, including Active Duty, the Reserves, and the "Inactive Reserves" (the guys who get rudely yoinked back into duty.)

In theory, every able-bodied male who opted to register in the Selective Service (that's all able-bodied American males between the ages of 18 and 25) can be called into military duty, but any circumstances where that might actually happen could probably be considered horrific by themselves.

Officers are theoretically subject to recall indefinitely, and must keep two uniforms in case it happens.

Gerd von Rundstedt was one of Germany's top field marshals during World War II. He had retired in 1938 after over forty years of service, only for Hitler to reinstate him to lead the Heer into Poland, France, and Ukraine. Despite having acquitted himself very well (though committing the usual spate of War Crimes, of course) during Operation Barbarossa, during Operation Typhoon he was fired from his position as the commander of Army Group South for ordering a 'cowardly and unnecessary retreat'. In fact a severely-depleted force under his command (First Panzer Army) had accidentally attacked a Soviet force more than five times stronger than it by trying to take the Donbass, and was then threatened with encirclement and annihilation by it note Runstedt had been told by German military intelligence (FHO) that the Soviets could offer 'no significant resistance' to such an operation (due to them supposedly having run out of trained reserves and weapons) . In the summer of 1944 he was fired again, this time because he was "difficult to work with" note He had a 'too old for this shit' attitude that caused him to mouth off whenever he felt like. But his cardinal sin was insisting too hard that the Normandy landings were probably the real deal and Calais a diversion, something that German military intelligence contradicted , and was then brought back again as the Germans were forced to withdraw from France altogether and had to quickly re-form a new defensive line on the Franco-German border.

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